Most people don’t usually experience quiet moments of realization while cleaning out a cat’s litter box, but this is sort of how the writing and editing process goes: Here I crouch, sifting through environmentally-friendly litter and scooping out poops. Several paces away, my handsome tuxedo derpface sits primly, tail curled around his hind legs, silently judging. After I’ve bagged the waste and...
Let’s pick up where we left off, shall we? I had graduated with my PhD in English but had realized that a tenure track academic job was not for me. What does one do, then, to prepare oneself for a new career path? Again, I must echo what Staci emphasized—reach out to your networks.
I begin this blog post with the title “We’re All Smart Enough” because, as has at least been part of my experience of graduate education, there is a perception that only the best and brightest get the coveted tenure track job in higher education. But I’m here to tell you—if you’re in a PhD program, you are one of the best and the brightest. You ARE smart enough. And deciding that you do not enjoy...
When asked to write a series of posts on how my PhD work prepared me for a more diverse career path, I knew that I wanted to be helpful while still acknowledging the truth behind finding any sort of employment: so much of it is about luck, not skill and worth. Yes, I have a lot of skills that have made me a good fit for my current job as a tutor manager. They are not necessarily why I was hired...
This month, Broadly Textual is proud to welcome back two outstanding graduates from the English Graduate program at Syracuse University (and previous contributors to the blog), Dr. Staci Stutsman and Dr. Melissa Welshans. Each week in March, our returning contributors will discuss their experiences within their PhD program, the skills they gained during their studies, and how they utilize those...
“Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a Congresswoman.”Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) Every year, I make a feminist New Year’s resolution: apologize less; shut down more mansplaining; take up more space. Sometimes I mean this last one literally: I’ve learned to square my shoulders and stake my place in crowded subways, and to...
This week, we dive into Broadly Textual’s archive, from its days as Metathesis, to revisit a piece of important work by now-Dr. Melissa Welshans. Her post, written in 2014 during her time in the English PhD program, addresses the same issues discussed by Natalie El-Eid in her first contribution this month, and reflected in the poem contribution by Rhyse Curtis last week: how do we navigate a...
“The aim of this month’s posts is to interrogate our need to reconstruct our bodies, minds, and identities to fit the cultural standards of who and what we should be.” — Natalie El-Eid, “New Year, New You … True You?,” January 8, 2019 Write something, Write something, Write anything,Write About bodies, about my body, about a new year body full of hopeFull of Shame —...
Welcome to 2019, everyone. With the ushering in of a new year comes the seemingly incessant need for a new “resolution.” But is it really a need? Or are we dealing, rather, with a set of societal norms and the pressure we feel to conform to them? It’s a pressure that’s hard to escape. We’re annually inundated with questions of a New Year’s resolution by strangers and loved ones alike. What, I...
This week is 2018’s Asexual Awareness Week (October 21-28), so I want to revisit a post that I wrote four years ago. (Ray Osborn will return with a final installment of poetry next week.) This article below was the first time that I would publicly write about asexuality. I was not out when I wrote it. But response to this post was positive, and the editor of our web magazine (know as Metathesis...